<![CDATA[Horse trading and arm twisting as US battles China over leadership of UN intellectual property agency]>

A scrum is heating up behind diplomatic doors as US and European opposition mounts to a Chinese national heading the UN agency overseeing intellectual property.

The jockeying centers on the World Intellectual Property Organisation (Wipo), a Geneva-based agency with a large discretionary budget and outsize role in global patents and trademarks.

Officially, there are 10 candidates vying for the post of director general. But the real contest is between China's Wang Binying, Wipo's current deputy director general, and Singaporean Daren Tang, who heads a satellite Wipo office in Singapore, insiders say.

"If Wang steps into those shoes, 10 years from now we will no longer have an IP system based on markets," said Mark Cohen, director of the law and technology centre at the University of California, Berkeley. "I don't want to live in an IP world where China sets the rules."

Washington, Brussels, Tokyo and Taipei are scrambling to line up support for Tang, appealing to allies and pressuring Japanese and Estonian candidates to withdraw, say persons close to Wipo. In doing so, they hope to counter China's vast resources and diplomatic clout in the developing world where most votes reside.

Western ambassadors and US officials, including President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, have urged Brazil to support its native son Jose Graca-Aranha, a senior Wipo official and potential compromise candidate, three people said, but Brasilia has balked at doing so because of internal politics.

With concern mounting, the Trump administration last month appointed a veteran diplomat to help counter Beijing's "malign influence" in the UN, a State Department spokesman said. This followed a bipartisan congressional letter in December strongly opposing Wang's candidacy and citing Beijing's history of "trade secrets theft, corporate espionage and forced transfer of technology".

Wipo, Kushner's office, the State and Commerce departments and the Brazilian embassy in Washington did not answer requests for comment on the leadership contest.

The showdown comes as intellectual property plays a growing role in the US-China trade war and the fight over 5G telecommunications standards escalates.

China topped the 2019 Priority Watch List of countries Washington monitors, Beijing's 15th annual appearance. The list cites an "urgent need for fundamental structural changes".

The leadership jockeying also highlights China's growing global footprint. A Wang victory would give Beijing five top spots at specialised UN agencies " Washington, which contributes far more to the UN budget, has four " expanding its ability to project China's world view.

And the race spotlights the arcane UN appointment system and urgent need for reform at Wipo, critics say, amid a legacy of scandals, alleged mismanagement and hounding out of whistle-blowers under the leadership of the current director general, Francis Gurry.

Gurry did not respond to a request for comment.

Binying Wang is a candidate to lead the UN agency overseeing intellectual property. Photo: World Intellectual Property Organisation alt=Binying Wang is a candidate to lead the UN agency overseeing intellectual property. Photo: World Intellectual Property Organisation

His Wipo tenure has included allegations that a Wipo employee's DNA was illegally collected from lipstick, dental floss and candies in search of the author of an anonymous letter critical of Gurry and others, according to an unredacted UN investigative report seen by the South China Morning Post.

The Australian has also been criticised for establishing satellite offices in North Korea and Iran stocked with high-end US computers in violation of US export bans, allegedly in return for votes; for paying a US lobbying firm nearly US$200,000 to help avoid detection; and the alleged routing of a large IT contract to an Australian company run by an acquaintances, according to 2016 congressional testimony.

During the testimony, Representative Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey, called Gurry a "bad apple", and Representative Brad Sherman, a Democrat from California, termed Wipo "the Fifa of UN agencies" a reference to soccer's scandal-plagued ruling body.

Current and former employees describe Gurry as a smart, often charming, tactically brilliant official who has run Wipo like a private kingdom.

"Many people have the idea that the UN is some kind of paradise," said Wei Lei, former Wipo chief information officer, dismissed in 2019 over what he says were trumped-up charges of theft after reporting malfeasance. "It's very much like a fiefdom."

"General fear among the staff is always there," added Lei, who is appealing his dismissal. "If you happen to have a good director general, lucky you. But if not, you're going to have a dictator."

But critics also blame Western nations for poor strategy and turning the election into a US-China showdown, rather than devising an early, face-saving compromise. "Everyone is rushing to stop the Chinese at all costs," said someone close to Wipo. "But I think they missed the train."

Fresh in many minds is Washington's drubbing during June's election for UN Food and Agriculture Organisation director. The Trump administration refused to back the French candidate because she reportedly is an abortion rights advocate, supporting a Georgian instead.

"You think a French pro-choice person is worse than the Chinese?" said Lei, an Australian citizen. "You have to pick your battles."

That allowed Beijing to split the vote and secure a resounding victory for Chinese Vice-Minister Qu Dongyu. "Outfoxed and outgunned," noted Foreign Policy.

People close to Wang give her high marks for professionalism, her IP experience and knowledge of Wipo. Some, however, say she's a competent No 2 without the vision to push through internal reforms and forge external consensus.

Her accommodative personality, they add, could see China expand its influence over the agency. "She will have no option but to do what her government pressures her to do," said the person close to Wipo.

Singapore's Tang has less management or industry experience and is from a city state with limited global clout. "He's very smart, very calm. He once gave me a book on tea and Zen," said Lei. "But when it comes to dealing with tricky manoeuvres, the international environment, I'm not quite sure."

While back-room horse trading could still produce a viable compromise candidate, some question how much Singapore wants the job given its national strategy of balancing Washington and Beijing. "Do high-level officials in Singapore really want to be meat in a sandwich between the US and China?" said one former Wipo official.

Wang and Tang declined to comment.

While UN officials take an oath to support UN objectives over home country interests, China has a mixed record.

A study last year by the independent Center for New American Security think tank warned that Beijing was using the UN to further its agenda, which it said included exporting corruption, mass surveillance and human rights repression. "China, through its behavior in international organisations, is making the world safe for autocracy," it wrote.

Representative Chris Smith (pictured), a Republican from New Jersey, once called Wipo director general Francis Gurry a "bad apple". Photo: Bloomberg alt=Representative Chris Smith (pictured), a Republican from New Jersey, once called Wipo director general Francis Gurry a "bad apple". Photo: Bloomberg

Speaking on Chinese state media last year, former head of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs Wu Hongbo said he prioritised China's interests over the UN's. His tenure saw the president of the World Uyghur Congress expelled from an indigenous rights forum.

Taiwan has not been allowed to attend the International Civil Aviation Organisation's annual assembly since a Chinese national took over the agency. And Washington worries that Zhao Houlin could nudge global 5G standards in Huawei's favour as current head of the UN's International Telecommunication Union.

Unlike most UN agencies, almost all of Wipo's US$800 million budget and US$99 million surplus is funded by industry, giving the agency and its director greater independence from UN member nations. The funding comes from companies that pay around US$1,000 per claim to safeguard their corporate and quasi-military secrets. Patent and trademark filings are stored on a secure Wipo server while companies decide which national jurisdictions to target.

"If it had control over all the levers, China would have nominal access to all patent applications before they got published," said James Pooley, a trade secrets lawyer and former deputy director general at Wipo who testified before Congress on malfeasance at the agency.

"That's a risk that needs to be contemplated," added Pooley, who said Gurry forced him out.

The Chinese embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment. But Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said in a recent Beijing briefing that China has made steady progress in intellectual property protection, "a conclusion that anyone without bias will be able to arrive at".

In 2019, China ranked 49th globally on the Intellectual Property Rights Index of 129 nations monitored, up from 52nd in 2018. The US rose two spots to No 12. And Singapore rose one to No 4.

Leadership races at Wipo and other UN agencies are complex, political and frequently opaque. An 88-member committee winnows candidates amid back-room horse trading over satellite office locations, government favours and jobs at the 1,500-staff agency. By early March a single candidate will emerge to be voted on first by the committee, then all 192 UN member nations.

"It's like a papal conclave," said Daniel Runde, senior vice-president at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a senior White House adviser, is urging support for a Brazilian candidate to lead the intellectual property agency. Photo: Bloomberg alt=Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a senior White House adviser, is urging support for a Brazilian candidate to lead the intellectual property agency. Photo: Bloomberg

In recent weeks, Wang has been on a charm offensive for votes, visiting Asian, African and European capitals. China's 147 embassies have also reportedly been offering investment and jobs in return for votes. "China's outreach has been amazing," said one official close to Wipo.

Leading up to June's FAO vote, Beijing forgave some US$78 million worth of debt from Cameroon. A short while later Cameroon's candidate dropped out, paving the way for China's victory.

Pooley believes Wipo needs an outside candidate better able to clean house and safeguard whistle-blowers. Three candidates tried to mount independent campaigns " including former senior Wipo adviser, Australian diplomat and whistle-blower Miranda Brown, who called for greater accountability and transparency " but the Wipo committee disqualified them last month.

Some also blame the member states charged with monitoring Wipo.

"A call for reform would expose their inattention, incompetence or complicity in the mismanaged oversight of Wipo," said Edward Flaherty, a Geneva-based lawyer who over 25 years has represented dozens of UN whistle-blowers, including Lei, Pooley and Brown. "Any candidates that publicly promise reform are probably ensuring that they will not be selected."

Beijing has said little publicly about Wang's candidacy. But heading Wipo could help blunt its reputation as a global intellectual property violator, ensure that Wipo doesn't focus on enforcement or global standards it opposes and help it showcase progress, analysts say.

While the Communist Party controls China's judiciary, experts say intellectual property courts have recently handed down relatively fair decisions in non-political cases. Increasingly, Beijing's ambitious 2025 economic road map and home-grown tech giants like Huawei and ZTE give it a greater stake in protecting IP.

"Most cases nowadays are one Chinese company against another," said William Reinsch, chair of international business and senior adviser at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies and a former Commerce Department official. "The message they're getting from Chinese engineers is, if you want us to stay here, you need to protect us."

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This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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